Thoughts on the Cancelation of Star Trek Discovery

Yes, I’m bitter that Paramount canceled Star Trek Discovery.

Ideally, a great Star Trek show would be pushing the boundaries of television drama. The original Star Trek (TOS) did that. I’d argue that Deep Space Nine did that. None of the current Star Trek shows are interested in that.

Star Trek Discovery was at least pushing the boundaries of what Star Trek is. The other shows aren’t interested in going there. (An exception could be made for Star Trek Prodigy — which is genuinely great — but I don’t know enough about modern kids’ television to say if it’s actually pushing any boundaries or not.)

Star Trek Discovery started rocky but was at least improving every season. The season four arc, pulling in some more hard science-fiction… was it borrowing from Arrival? Sure! But at least it was expanding the genre of Star Trek and providing a genuinely fascinating story (even despite the fact that like all the current live-action Star Trek shows, it has trouble sustaining a single story for an entire season).

The other current Star Trek shows? They’re playing it safe and existing within the playpen of Star Trek that’s already defined. Which isn’t always bad and can often be great, but it’s rarely surprising. As a comparison, let’s look at a scene from Breaking Bad. Remember when Gus Fring suddenly murders his subordinate by stabbing him in the neck during a tense scene when the audience doesn’t even realize that killing this character would even be an option? The audience is shocked and then a second later realizes, well, OF COURSE Fring did that. That’s the most logical thing for that character to do and leaves the antagonist in a stronger position than he was before.

Contrast that with Star Trek Picard’s killing of Commander (née Ensign) Ro. The antagonists are in a position to quickly kill the character by simply shooting her in the back of the head. That would shock the audience into paying attention. Instead, they put her in a shuttlecraft with a bomb heading straight towards their own ship, with a timer set on the bomb giving her more than adequate time to use their weapon against them. Why would an intelligent adversary do this? The scene ends with the antagonists in a worse position than they were before. There are no surprises here.

There’s no reason that a Star Trek show couldn’t be the best thing on television. I enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds, but every time it took a small step towards the boundaries, it quickly jumped back as if to say, “Don’t worry, folks, no danger here!” This is a show that showed actual footage from the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol and then immediately undercut it by having Pike basically say, “Both sides needed to come together”.

I’ve heard interviews where the cast of Strange New Worlds say that the second season will be taking bigger swings. I hope this is true and that the swings they’re taking are pushing the boundaries of Star Trek, if not the boundaries of television drama. I hope the big swings aren’t Captain Pike playing the guitar or wearing a silly hat.

If Star Trek really wants to be relevant again, take a lesson from the writers’ room of Better Call Saul. They knew they were standing on the shoulders of something great, but weren’t afraid to try to make something even greater by doing different things than what had worked on Breaking Bad.